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The Malabar Catholic Church and Trinitarium

The Malabar Catholic Church was founded in Malabar, India, by St. Thomas the Apostle in A.D. 52. Therefore, it is not a branch or offshoot of any Church, but an individual Church, headed by the Major Archbishop in communion with the Pope of Rome. As this Church originated and grew outside the Roman Empire, it was never involved in any heresy or schism. About the Catholic Orthodoxy of the Malabar Church, Pope John Paul Second said: ‘’ It is to the glory of this Church that it has not ever been severed from the communion with the Church of Rome, in a continuity that the enormous geographic distance has never been able to break”. As an individual Church of the Catholic Church, it has its own way of celebrating the sacraments, its own discipline and hierarchy under the Pope of Rome.

The Catholic Church is blessed with five major liturgical traditions, namely Alexadrian, Antiochian, Armenian, Byzantine, East Syrian and Roman. The Malabar Catholic Church belongs to the East Syrian liturgical tradition. This Church got the name Syro Malabar because of its East Syrian Liturgy and its origin in Malabar, India. In the Malabar Catholic Church, the Eucharist is celebrated in the Malabar Rite. In the first part of the Eucharist, the Celebrant faces the congregation to commemorate the Life and Public Ministry of Jesus here on earth, and in the second part, the Celebrant and the Congregation face the Trinitarium, the Symbol of the Most Holy Trinity, (the Dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit, the Budded Cross symbolizes the Risen Christ, and the Burning Bush on the Mount symbolizes God the Father) to signify that the celebrant and the congregation offer worship to the Most Holy Trinity in the Eucharist, and to signify that the priest is called to lead the Eucharistic community to the Heavenly Jerusalem.

In the Eucharist, during the hymn of Resurrection, the Trinitarium, placed in the Sanctuary, is unveiled to symbolize the manifestation of the Triune God (Theophany) at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. The gold color veil symbolizes that Jesus is the way to Father, and the way to our glorious resurrection. As Jesus opened forever the Way for us, the sanctuary in kept unveiled all the times, except from the beginning of the Eucharist to the hymn of Resurrection. In the Malabar Eucharist, the whole Christ event is reenacted and celebrated.